So my manager asked me to come to the backroom one day since he was headed out, he wanted to give me a temporary passcode to unlock the loading dock door in case delivery people needed to come through. So I punched in the passcode I thought of and when that was done he told me he wanted to see if I knew how to turn off the alarm, without warning me, without any delay, he pushes open the loading dock door. I think his idea was to teach me how to do it while it was going off, instead of giving me instructions in advance...
Immediately the burglar alarm goes off above our heads and it's a piercing warbling sound coming from the speaker you can hear all the way from the front of the store. I quickly cover my ears with my hands and leave the room and my manager laughs and asks "Where are you going? You have to turn off the alarm! I don't know your passcode." I entered back to turn it off and he's trying to explain while I have both hands over my ears and stupidly took my right hand away from the ear to enter in the passcode. I gave up within a few seconds, told him my passcode and told him I can't deal with the alarm. I wait outside the loading dock while he turns it off, and when he's done asks me again "What happened there?" I told him I had tinnitus and his response was "What? Tinnitus? How do you pronounce that?" Told him how to pronounce it and that it was permanent ringing in my ears. "Huh. I've never heard of that."
My tinnitus has spiked in both ears now and it's driving me insane because I was already spiking when another worker dropped a pallet on the ground next to me. I think I just about give up. My manager didn't set the alarm off out of maliciousness, but because noise doesn't bother him at all he does these things without hesitation. It's like trying to avoid smokers when you're living in the early 20th century, or having a nut allergy, and everyone is made out of peanut butter. How do you even avoid all these things that make your life worse when they're part and parcel of living outside, short of being a recluse?
Immediately the burglar alarm goes off above our heads and it's a piercing warbling sound coming from the speaker you can hear all the way from the front of the store. I quickly cover my ears with my hands and leave the room and my manager laughs and asks "Where are you going? You have to turn off the alarm! I don't know your passcode." I entered back to turn it off and he's trying to explain while I have both hands over my ears and stupidly took my right hand away from the ear to enter in the passcode. I gave up within a few seconds, told him my passcode and told him I can't deal with the alarm. I wait outside the loading dock while he turns it off, and when he's done asks me again "What happened there?" I told him I had tinnitus and his response was "What? Tinnitus? How do you pronounce that?" Told him how to pronounce it and that it was permanent ringing in my ears. "Huh. I've never heard of that."
My tinnitus has spiked in both ears now and it's driving me insane because I was already spiking when another worker dropped a pallet on the ground next to me. I think I just about give up. My manager didn't set the alarm off out of maliciousness, but because noise doesn't bother him at all he does these things without hesitation. It's like trying to avoid smokers when you're living in the early 20th century, or having a nut allergy, and everyone is made out of peanut butter. How do you even avoid all these things that make your life worse when they're part and parcel of living outside, short of being a recluse?